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Insectageddon can be avoided: But does human kind have the will power?

Earlier this week I alluded to the large scale extinction of insect species around the world and the consequences for human kind if this is allowed to continue. After 48 hours and some reflection, I see a window of time in which this could be thwarted, but like a real window, this one has a clearly defined frame outside of which it will be too late.

Whilst insectageddon – the name given for the mass extinction of insect species currently in progress – has terminal consequences for human kind, that is not to say the demise of humanity is imminent, though that is an eventual certainty. Humanity’s survival is dependent on radical action to protect the global biosphere, starting as fast as we can.

Humans created this catastrophe, just as we made possible the massive and on going large scale destruction of the biosphere. And at the same time the solutions to this and insectageddon are of human manufacture as well.

The real question is will power, and whether moneyed up interests can be put aside for what is – irrespective of social status, wealth, nationality or any other common denominator – a problem that affects quite literally every single person on this planet. We all need the biosphere to enable what my Year 9 science teacher said is M.R.S. G.R.E.N.

All living things do it. All of us excrete. Somehow that all needs to be broken down, consumed and not left to contaminate the biophysical environment around it. Among the important crawlies that assist in this matter are dung beetles, which are pretty much world wide except for Antarctica.

Not all of the work saving our insects and their place in the food chain will be done by insects themselves. Human kind can contribute massively to this by changing how they do pest control on crops, stop the large scale deforestation for development of farm land. It is more simple than one thinks. Alternative sprays and other pest control agents to those proposed by agrichemical companies such as Monsanto are easy to devise. Another is to put honey bee hives in your back yard so that they can continue pollinating plants.

There will need to be a political sea change in thinking. Before one can have human activity, the humans must be well enough to do things. Before one can have human beings, there must be a biosphere that can support them. And before that biosphere can exist, there must be insects to pollinate our plants, clean up our excretement – who knew the dung beetle was such an important creature? – and so on. But do we have the will power to make that change?

The clock is ticking.

The research that has sparked concerns that the insect population might be wiped out is not new either. It was first suggested in 2017 that, based on prolonged decline of all species types, in the last 25 years in Germany, that ecological armageddon could be a thing in the near future.

But the interest in it becomes more serious knowing now that the demise of so much insect live will have catastrophic impacts on the entire food chain, with insect eating species such as spiders and fish being next.